The Dell Digital Jukebox comes to save the day from iPod domination.

The Dell Dg Jukebox is a simple yet durable unit. It got backlight overpowers both on cd players and the old iPod. The simpl design on the front is made up. Under those buttons area skip backwards, play/pause, and skip forward. Unlike the iPod the Dell Digital Jukebox has two buttons on the left side. The buttons from (top to bottom) are power, volume up, volume down, voice recorder. Although the engineering is great, and the Dell Digital Jukebox is very durable, it has little bit of style problems. The silver plated metal front and back stick out. The colors match, but it does not look as uniform as the iPod does. The front, the buttons, scroll button, and LCD screen are placed in a polished metal rectangle that is plopped right in the middle of the silver color. Free it doesn't look as stylish as other mp3 players, but its durability makes up for that. The Dell Digital Jukebox is lacking in style, it makes up in durability and simplicity.

Ease of Use

The Dell Digital Jukebox is simple to hundel either in the day, during night time, or with a remote. Similar to traditional iPod it keeps the majority of the buttons on the front of the unit. With only the free power, volume, and recording switches on the side all playback buttons are centralized on the front console for ideal and also easy use. The “Home” button is one of the best features for the user-friendly unit. Think that you are deep into your Red Hot Chili Peppers and don't feel like hitting the back button many times, just one tap of the “Home” button and you are back to the original menu. The scroll component it rotates in place so that ones thumb does not have to unnecessarily have to extend to search for your music.

Using its bright bluish-green LCD lights all the buttons on the front console light up (except the scroll component), and this allows for nightly use. Also the power button is illuminated all the time, so there is no trouble turning off the unit in a dark scenario. Dell Digital Jukebox scored a perfect grade for ease of use.

Speed of Transferred Music:

Dell Jukebox is not as fast as the iPod's Firewire line, it comes with an extremely more compatible, yet slightly slower USB 2.0 cord. The port on the Dell Digital Jukebox is a 5-prong USB port that is adapted to a 2.0. Basically all computers come with a USB port, for mice or keyboards or joysticks, and some digital cameras. While slightly slower than the iPod I just let the Dell Jukebox run its course over dinner. I usually only put on 4 albums at a time and this easily finishes in 15 minutes, so this is still quick for transferring around 50 songs. The compatibility for the USB cancels out the slightly slower transfer, which makes the Dell Digital Jukebox a safe pick for transfers.

Sound of Transferred Music: 5/5

The quality of sound that is coming from the Dell Digital Jukebox is amazing. Along with the free iPod , it has the same majestic album quality like a brand new record right out of the case. This comes from Dell's Musicmatch Jukebox software that rips albums to almost perfect high quality. The Dell Digital Jukebox even has a good built-in equalizer. I have a custom setting for translating songs into sheet music for me to play with my friends. I actually feel that the Dell Digital Jukebox may have a better sound chip than the iPod because after listening to the Dell Digital Jukebox it made the iPod sound like my old school JAMp3 from elementary school. This rich sound can be changed from a classical preset equalizer to many more ranging from jazz to pop to vocal to rock, and more. This feature can accentuate the sound of the music to please the listener as much as possible.

Size and Navigation:

The Dell Digital Jukebox is a sizable mp3 player at 20 Gigabytes of free memory. At album quality this beast of an mp3 player can hold 5000 songs. Analogous to the iPod the Dell Digital Jukebox can be used either as a backup drive for your computer or a way for transferring information. Since the computers at my school don't have an A: Drive (floppy disk drive), I have been using my Dell Digital Jukebox to transport big papers and projects that I have not want to write on my laptop. This feature has been very helpful and with the abundance of room you can fit many files onto the player. The Dell Digital Jukebox and the iPod use almost identical firmware in their products. On the main page there are six tabs:

Battery Life: 5/5

Containing a hefty Lithium-Ion Polymer battery this is what gives the Dell Digital Jukebox its larger size over other mp3 players. This robust packs a charge that will shock the iPod out of the competition. With a battery able to last up to 20 hours of solid playback, the Dell Digital Jukebox never ceases to amaze me on how many albums it can play in succession. I have played it all night as a test and then look in the morning to see how much battery is missing. I wake up and look at the Dell Digital Jukebox and expect it to be dead, but behold it is on the second round through my 75-song playlist. “It only lost 25% battery all night, what is going on?”. I turned the Dell Digital Jukebox off and on again, thinking it was surely frozen. When the unit turns back on still 75% battery. “Wow” my envious iPod owning friend said to me. My Dell Digital Jukebox never ceases to amaze people and this was one of the major selling points on this unit for me and others I know with the Dell Digital Jukebox .

The Verdict:

After having a bad experience with an iPod I purchased this masterpiece after my friend got one for Christmas. I have never let go of it since, and hopefully will never have to. With already about 1000 songs on this machine I have enough music for any road trip. This maybe be one of the best heavy duty mp3 players on the market for the price. With all due respect to Apple , “I think Dell took the cake on this one” .